The backstory<\/p>\n
The Tampa-based nonprofit Grey Bull Rescue flew a chartered plane to Sheltair at Tampa International Airport <\/a>on Friday, as part of a rescue mission to save Americans stuck in Mexico.<\/p>\n A couple from the Chicago area was visiting their family in the Guadalajara region, which has cartel activity, when they were unable to leave.<\/p>\n Dig deeper<\/p>\n The Acosta family is among the Americans in Mexico who were stuck after violence that erupted last weekend following the death of a cartel leader. The couple\u2019s son, a Navy veteran with intelligence ties, wanted help getting them out, so Grey Bull Rescue stepped in.<\/p>\n “We were afraid to see how things were happening. Everything was burned down. Vehicles burned down. Stores burned down. Pharmacies burned down. And we couldn’t get out because we were afraid the cartel was out there,” Arnulfo Acosta said in Spanish to FOX13.<\/p>\n This is the latest operation for Grey Bull Rescue. But they said they\u2019ve been linking up with stranded Americans in cartel areas and driving them to the airport after it reopened. Flights are back to normal, so the U.S. Department of State recommends any Americans traveling to check their airline for updates.<\/p>\n “For us, we’re all about saving American lives. And the idea that the streets are a little bit better, that people can’t get out, that the airports are fully functional, fully open, is a really, really great thing, and we hope it stays that way,” Bryan Stern, the founder of Grey Bull Rescue, said.<\/p>\n What’s next<\/p>\n The husband and wife, who are 76 and 78 years old and live in Illinois<\/a>, had not seen their son since Christmastime. They said their arrival was their first time in Florida<\/a>, but they are ready to go home and thankful to be back on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n The Source<\/p>\n The information in this story was gathered through interviews with the rescued couple from Mexico and Grey Bull Rescue, and it was gathered by FOX 13\u2019s\u00a0Briona Arradondo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Tampa nonprofit Grey Bull Rescue evacuated an older Illinois couple from cartel-affected Guadalajara, flying them into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[82059,80915,3387,82060,4392,82061,82058,135,137,3210,136],"class_list":["post-172737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-cartel-activity","tag-cartel-leader","tag-grey-bull-rescue","tag-guadalajara","tag-mexico","tag-rescue-mission","tag-sheltair","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-international-airport","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6276c16a77fd5578019043f7e18fd5c4.jpeg\"\/)
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